And this past weekend, we decided to install them in my office...

Yea... a little dirty... and there's a boxer in it... not the best "before" picture...

Here is what it looked like from in the realtors pictures before we moved in....
 Sorry the realtor is classier than I am...

But back to what we're hear to talk about... the floor, I mean painted cement... (because that is seriously all it is)
mmm... tootsie roll brown... my favorite.

We knew we wanted to install our new travertine in my office first, especially since it would be the easiest to do (just lay it right on top of the concrete! No prep needed!) Luckily for both Chris and I, Chris's dad is kind awesome/amazing/crazy-talented when it comes to things like this.
So he came over and helped Chris lay the tile while I manned our yard sale out... and no, there are no pictures of me in my glasses arguing about whether an old bathroom scale is worth $2 or $1 (I made sure to delete them)

We decided on a herringbone pattern and used 3/8ths spacers...


Even with just a portion of it done, I was in LOVE with it...






Fun Fact about the sunroom/my office/our house: there are no square rooms.  Im not joking.

Chris had to break out the wet saw and used it a LOT on this project.

SEVEN HOURS after they first started, Chris was laying the last tiles.

Let's not ask about the wet spot at the bottom of his shirt... yeaaaaa, I'll leave that alone.

But here it is! All set and drying!


Chris even christened it by shot-gunning a beer outside...
I think he totally deserved it though... job well done hunny...
The next morning, we removed all our mini trees spacers and just gawked at it for about a half hour...



Even without grout, it looked amazing...
After we wiped up all our drool from our mouths hanging open so long, we began to grout.
 We used a Polyblend, sanded grout for joints 1/8 - 1/2... again, we used 3/8 joints, so sanded was the way to go for us! (Reminder: all joints smaller than 1/8" (ie. kitchen back splashes, bathroom counter-tops, etc) use a NON-sanded grout)

I decided to go with the "Alabaster" color, since that's what my parents used with almost the exact same tile and I knew it would look fan-freakin-tastic...
awww yeaa.....

Chris, dressed in his Sunday's best, went to work grouting....
then wiped it off with a wet sponge..
As you can tell, he was really excited I put him back to work...
That night, we let it dry...
We really didnt have to worry to much about the haze since we just take that off with a wet rag later...
The next day, I was the one to remove the haze (hence no picy-icky), but here's how they looked all haze-free!

Not too shabby if I say so myself!!

Alas, we still were not done... next step was the sealer, which makes it all pretty , smooth, and darkens it up just a touch...
We used Du Pont Stone Sealer; basic from Home Depot... Side note: this is the first time I have ever seen "Du Pont" on something that wasn't driving at 200mph and turning left... I guess its finally good to know this what they were racing for...

Chris applied it with a roller, making sure to cover the entire area and get in all the cracks...
The man loves his housework...
Yet another night of letting it dry, but this is what it looked like...
Yea, I know... it's stupid pretty...

All other tile should be jealous of this tile... hell, Im jealous of how good this tile looks...
While in the middle of starring lovingly at my pretty new floors, I thought "what the hell, why not paint too?!"

I dont know if you guys have seen my page marked "House Tour" but its all the pictures the realtor took of the house when they were trying to sell it... the one common thread throughout the entire house? Blue/grey walls...
Im not saying its a bad blue/grey! On the contrary, it very pretty and really does go with just about everything... but the entire house being one color really isnt my style so we have been painting it room by room; putting our stamp on the place.

Side note: here's a fun picture from the painting party we had right before we moved in... we just did the dining room, living room, and hallway, but it really made a difference!

 Update: we have painted over our names and its now a solid Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware... its pretty.

SO pretty in fact, its what I decided to paint my office... after I primed, of course...


and here she is: Silver Sage...
I just love this color because its bright, pretty, mellow, but really goes with anything (black, white, grey, green, blue, etc)...

That night, I started to move furniture back into my office.
(Sorry for the kinda cruddy picture, I took it with my cell phone)

But I finished up the next day and am SUPER proud to reveal how it looks NOW!
Ohhh.... ahhhh....
I love that it looks almost natural to the house (circa 1940)...
My office is really bright due to all the windows but I think the tile and the soft Silver Sage just play right into the fact that my office faces the garden (photo of garden to come as soon as we replant!)

Also something super cool: we saved over $450 doing it ourselves and getting our tile from the Granite and Marble Auction!! WHOO HOO!!!

So... what do you think?? Like the new tile? The herringbone pattern? or would you have gone with something else? Different pattern, different size/color tile, different color grout?  I would LOVE to hear your feedback!!

P.S - We have already started putting this travertine in another space in our house, but I wont give it away just yet... its going to be a TOTAL transformation though!! So excited to show you guys soon!